Mailstrom – Inbox Zero At Its Best

Today, I discovered Mailstrom!  Mailstrom takes inbox organization to a new level, is free right now, and gets you quickly to the ultimate goal of inbox zero!  Imagine having your inbox at zero…just imagine!

It’s a very easy process.  Simply go their site and enter your email address.  Enter a few more details and mailstrom begins separating your email so that you can look at it like you want to.  For instance, you can look at by time frame (age), subject, sender, Social, and Shopping.  But, my very favorite is Lists.  With Lists, you can instantly unsubscribe from those annoying subscriptions you wonder how you got yourself into AND delete the emails all in one click!

For the other views, you have the option of archiving collections of similar items, deleting them, or moving them to another folder.  You can even create a rule that will be followed when similar emails arrive in the future.

Now, when I say deleting, I don’t mean that you have 500 emails and you have to delete 50 at a time…I mean, delete…all at once…one click….same with archive and move.  Huge timesaver!

By the way, while Mailstrom is organizing one mailbox, you can add others (Gmail and iMap) and then you can clean them all up.

Another plus was that it unsubscribed me using the correct subscriber email automatically. I didn’t have to type it in.  It automatically switched to the correct one for the unsubscription process!

Seriously, run, don’t walk to Mailstrom and try out this fantastic program.  I cancelled Sane Box immediately and believe I will be using Mailstrom for my email organization needs!  LOVE IT!

Print Friendly
Tagged with: ,
Posted in Productivity

Symbaloo’s New Interface – Looks Amazing

I was so excited to read about Symbaloo’s New Interface.  I have long expressed my concern with the fact that my tabs across the top of the screen are unmanageable. It looks like Symbaloo listened and is addressing that problem along with a host of new options and improvements.

The first improvement is an expandable side bar.  In the side bar, there will be the ability to switch between tabs to get to all your webmixes.  When you have over 80 and growing, that means a great deal.  Clicking on a webmix will open up a tab and your webmix.  Brilliant!

It looks like you will be able to handle your settings and other administrative responsibilities. From the graphics displayed on the Symbaloo website, you can also customize the wallpaper and tiles to the sidebar settings. I also see a button to upload images which means that your customization can be even more personalized. From the educator’s standpoint, this kind of personalization allows you to connect educational webmixes to their content visually.

Another feature of the sidebar appears to be a search bar that will let you search for tiles and webmixes from the gallery. This is a great way to collaborate with other Symbaloo users and to share webmixes.

Thank you, Symbaloo, for listening to our comments. I, for one, cannot wait to start using the new interface as it appears it will streamline my use of Symbaloo.

 

Print Friendly
Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Productivity, Symbaloo Webmixes

We’ve moved to our new home on Edublogs

I would sure like to thank everyone for their patience while MyWeb4Ed.com moved to Edublogs.  We are now in our new home but we have some tweaking left to do.  You will find that some of the images didn’t make it with the blog and we are in the process of reattaching those and fixing any links.

We are really excited about our new home!  I think Edublogs and MyWeb4Ed are bound to be a good match.  If you haven’t checked out Edublogs at www.edublogs.com, I’d recommend you do so!  What a great way to communicate with students about what is happening in your classroom and involve them in blogging themselves!

Print Friendly
Tagged with: ,
Posted in Educational Resources

79 and Growing Excellent Professional Development Videos (Symbaloo Webmix)

FireShot Pro Screen Capture #033 - 'Symbaloo I Access your bookmarks anywhere' -

I’ve updated the Videos 4 ProfDev Symbaloo Webmix with 10 new, excellent videos to show for professional development meetings and motivational moments!  There are currently 79 videos and growing hand-selected for their quality!  Take a look!  If you know of any that should be added, please share with me!

Don’t forget to follow all of MyWeb4Ed’s Symbaloo webmixes at http://myweb4ed.symbaloo.com!

 

Print Friendly
Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Professional Development, Symbaloo Webmixes

“Go To” Learning Spot – A Place Online To Support Students – 5 Recommendations

social network_2

For many, many years, I have shared the very positive results that my students received from my use of my classroom website as a 24/7 classroom.  My website was a “Go To” place that the students could count on for support for our classroom.  At this site, the students could find not only assignments but specific sites and resources to help them understand those resources, a message board to ask questions, content related educational games and sites selected specifically for the interactive approach that taught, provided guided practice, and independent practice, and just to see their best work or their classmates best work published internationally for the world to see!  I taught from that webpage, started my class with that page, followed the lesson components on the page, and ended with the page.  The kids knew it was there and they knew it would be current.  And, they used it!  They all didn’t have computers at home, they didn’t all have Internet access, but they used it.  They found a way to the website and learning was improved.

I still believe in classroom websites but now there are other choices.  It’s time for educators to find the online presence they like and grow it so that it becomes a hub for students to visit to get support for their after-class questions or to spend time strengthening their skills.  No excuses….in this day and age, it is just too simple to do, there are just too many choices, and this is the way our digital students communicate.  Take advantage of this wonderful resource and begin to build it now.  You won’t build it all at once, but begin the process.  Begin with assignments (including resources for those assignments to further understanding) and commit to the process.  Build pieces as they become necessary and before you know it, you’ll have a buzzing, active, full of activity online presence that ignites learning, motivates students, and makes your job easier!  (Yes, I said makes your job easier!)  You’ll have a “Go To” location for Learning!

So, here are five great recommendations.  These aren’t all that’s out there but these are great and will serve the purpose:

      1. Edmodo – Everyone is on Facebook and Edmodo’s interface is comfortable and familiar to students.  Teachers are able to instantly create a “Go-To” site that is extremely easy to manage.  You can give assignments, include documents and links to supporting resources, and accept assignments in this location.  There’s a gradebook and the ability to create quizzes and polls.  Blogging is a cinch with the message boards and so is providing support.  Students are often more likely to post questions on Edmodo than ask them in class.   You can separate students into whatever groups you’d like:  class period, small groups, book titles for a book study, historic figures or eras…you name it.  Motivation is covered, too, as you can award badges to students.  Even at high school, they love these.  There’s a ton of apps that can be added but even the basic AND FREE Edmodo account will provide an amazing Go-To Learning Spot for your students.  And, there’s an App for Edmodo so your it’s great for BYOT/BYOD.
      2. Edublogs - Don’t be fooled by the word “blog” in the title of this site.  Edublogs provides a location for you to create a great Go-To Learning Spot.  You can choose a template to begin with and have a nice place to post your information.  You can add pages to the site for all of the various content and resources you’ll want to add.    If are so inclined, for a reasonable monthly fee, you can give each of your students their own blog on Edublogs that you are able to monitor totally.  And, yes, there’s an App for Edublogs.  This site is better for someone who doesn’t mind locating the various sources (quiz ability, etc) to make the site comprehensive and enjoys the flexibility in design.
      3. Twiducate - Twiducate is social networking for schools.  The video at the top of the post gives you an overview of Twiducate.  Again, the site is easy to use, free, and makes creating and managing your sources a breeze!
      4. Schoolology – You can create a comprehensive site very easily here.  Schoology is free and allows for networking among teachers and students.  You can create and grade quizzes, assignments, blogs, discussions, create graphs, and groups. One very nice feature is that you can set up this info to be released at a specific time so you can plan ahead and have it open up when you are ready.  Very little effort would be needed to create and maintain a great site that serves as a Go-To Learning Spot for students.
      5. Moodle – If you don’t mind creating  your own content (or want to create it), Moodle may just be the “Go-To Learning Spot” for your class.  This video gives an overview of Moodle’s ability:

Moodle Overview from Moodle HQ on Vimeo.

The main idea with these is to create your location.  If it’s going to be Twitter that you build your Go-To Learning Site at, that’s fine.  Just build it.  Start with one piece and grow it.  You will see improvements in your students. The payoff will be far more valuable than the effort expended!

Print Friendly
Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Posted in Professional Development

MyWeb4Ed on Symbaloo – Thousands of Educational Resources and Growing Daily

myweb4edsymbaloo

MyWeb4Ed is now a Symbaloo Premier account and has a page dedicated to the growing collection of educational resources.  This site will give you literally thousands of resources for almost any topic from Bring Your Own Device resources to Videos 4 Professional Development.  Keep this one handy as it grows daily and will continue to be a current source of educational technology resources!

Check us out at http://myweb4ed.symbaloo.com.

Print Friendly
Tagged with: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Educational Resources, Websites As Instructional Tools

MyCQs – Multiple Choice Questions On Your iPhone & iPad

iphone-e1357150841958

MyCQs is an app for your iPhone and iPad and it’s free today (January 2, 2012).  The idea behind this app is that you can connect with friends to review and revise the questions.  Imagine the Math Department at your school creating tests with this, allowing everyone to collaborate to improve the quality of the test questions!

Grab it while it’s free!

Information is found at their website at http://www.mycqs.com/ and it’s available in the App Store at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/mycqs/id555999518?mt=8.

Print Friendly
Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Educational Resources, Productivity

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

Voki

Print Friendly
Tagged with: , ,
Posted in BYOT/BYOD, Educational Resources

Pocket Informant: Calendar, Tasks, and Notes In One App!

jan1

Happy New Year everyone! I want to first take a moment to thank everyone for the support and following this blog, following us on Twitter, or like he does on Facebook.

For this year’s first post, I’m excited to share with you the app that is going to be my only calendar and task program. The app is called Pocket Informant and their website is www.pocketinformant.com.

You may recall that I have been looking for the perfect app for quite some time. I realize that I needed an app that handled my calendar, synced with Google calendar, synced with Outlook, and handled my tasks as well. I trade an awful lot of apps and Pocket Informant is the center is the perfect solution.

One of the best features of Pocket Informant is that it has a great interface that is easy to work with and intuitive, as well. If you remember the paper Day Planners that were so popular, then Pocket Informants will be a favorite for you, as well.

Pocket Informant is not an inexpensive app. The iPad app is $14.99 (however, today it seems to be on sale for $8.99) and the iPhone app is $9.99. If you want to sync everything including tags, folders, and more, the company offers a subscription for a yearly fee of $15 the ability to do so. For me, having an excellence calendar and task Is so important that it was worth the cost and nothing else came close to providing the features of Pocket Informant.

Check out this video to get an idea of how Pocket Informant works. In future posts, I’ll discuss the other calendar and task apps that I tried (and there were lots) as I delete them off my devices.

There are light versions of Pocket Informant that you can try and I recommend you do so. I will be posting about my adventures with this app but for now I am completely happy with it and looking forward to using it.

 

Print Friendly
Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Productivity

Cool Tools For School – Educator Resources

See on Scoop.itMyWeb4Ed

Carol Mortensen‘s insight:

This site provides a collection of tools for almost any classroom and educator’s need from File Storage to Slideshow Creation!  The resources are listed in a traditional link list and the classification system helps to find just the one you need!  I bet if you need it, you’ll find it here!

See on cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com

Print Friendly
Tagged with:
Posted in Educational Resources, Productivity
Subscribe to our Feed:
Categories
Archives
Follow @MyWeb4Ed on Twitter